Saturday, July 26, 2014

When we were growing up, our family would get invited by this other family who held quite the gatherings. From what I remember, they had an expansive buffet with various stations set up on their lawn. One of the stations was the griddled prawn station.

TS
This being the Philippines, when we say prawns, we mean actual prawns as large as one's hands, maybe larger. A lot of "prawns" we see in North America are merely shrimp.

At this magical griddled prawn station, each prawn would be butterflied at the back, then put on the griddle, basted with the heavenliest of concoctions.

TS
When we saw these Thai blue prawns, we thought it was time we attempted a re-creation.

Of course, JS and I don't actually know what went into making that dish. Thinking back, our best guess is this.

TS
A whack-load of butter, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce.

We were aiming to capture that elusive flavor from the past, and did not bother so much with sticking to the griddle method. Perhaps it's because we didn't have a griddle large enough to hold all the prawns, and that would have resulted in dreaded batch-cookery.

TS
For simplicity's sake, we threw in the butter, garlic and Worcestershire sauce into a wok and added the prawns. They needed to be tossed around quite a bit for each one to have a turn cooking in the butter/sauce. Maybe we needed to batch-cook them after all.

TS
Along the way, we seemed to have determined that the dish needed even more butter.

TS
After making sure the final guy had a dip in the garlicky, Worcestershire-y butter, the dish was done.

TS
Of course, being drenched in butter, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce, this could only be fantastic!

But, is this the same dish as the one at that griddle station?

I don't know. I think we probably did not re-create that same dish. I have a nagging feeling that our attempt falls a little bit short. Or, maybe this dish is actually better than the griddled prawns of our childhood. I truly can't say.

Such is nostalgia.

RecipeGarlic-Worcestershire Butter Prawns

This dish can be done to taste. Use as much or as little of each ingredient as you wish.prawns or shrimp (or even mussels or clams)buttergarlic, mincedWorcestershire sauce (be aware of the salt content in this ingredient)Pan/WokHeat your pan or wok. Add the butter, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce. When the butter has melted, add the prawns.Toss until the prawns have turned color.Serve.GriddleMelt the butter and mix together with the garlic and Worcestershire sauce.When the griddle is hot, put your prawns on it and pour the flavored butter over them. One can also baste the prawns with the flavored butter.Turn the prawns over to cook both sides.When both sides of each prawn have turned color, take them off the griddle. Serve.

Monday, April 07, 2014

TS:
Having recently tried porchetta at a local sandwich shop, JS and I left reminiscing about our own porchettas from the past.

Surprisingly, it seemed that we had quite a porchetta spree in 2011. And perhaps 2012 as well!

Pork!

TS:
One such occasion -- it may actually have been the first time -- was during the 2011 iteration of our Annual Summer BBQ Event.(See the event from 2010.)

We are usually leery calling this summer party a "BBQ", as guests would undoubtably expect our oh-my-god-it's-so-good Philippine Pork BBQ Skewers. JS and I have not had the time nor energy for such a feat in years. This is, of course, because we would have had to make an obscene number of skewers to satisfy the crowd!

So, in 2011, JS came up with a new concept: a do-it-yourself sandwich bar! We can cook off huge hunks of meat and that would be that! (Well, and make all the sides and condiments, too, of course. I mean, we're not slackers or somethin'.)

Mix the Giardiniera and Olive Salad together to make a SUPER CONDIMENT for your sandwich. Hell, throw in the Chiimichurri as well!

Holy, I just drooled a little. Those 3 condiments!!

BEEF JUS

(Not pictured.)

CARAMELIZED ONIONS

SAUTÉED MUSHROOMS

PROVOLONE CHEESE

MONTEREY CHEESE

FETA CHEESE

(Pictured in photo of entire buffet, after a few scrolls down.)

Of course, also available were

Mayo, Mustard, Pepperoncini, Hot Sauce…

Dessert

FRUIT CRISP

Pears, apples, mangos, peaches, blueberries and strawberries baked with a sweet crumbly topping. Great with gelato! (Pictured above before they donned their topping and got baked.)

The entire "sandwich bar" in all its glory.

TS:
Of course, it was a bit of a struggle getting everyone to actually build sandwiches. Everybody just went straight for the meat (and the salads, too, actually). I guess that's just how we roll.

And now, more about the PORCHETTA!

Porchetta

JS:
TS is pressuring me to write my bit for the porchetta.

You have to remember that this party was almost three years ago! How can I remember what I did to a piece of pork three years ago?!?

Deliciousness of the porchetta not withstanding, everything seems like a dream now, and in two more years, it would not be far-fetched to imagine this porchetta dropping from the sky, like manna.

Maybe we'll just have to wait a couple of years. . .then this post would be FIVE years old.

Wow.

JS:

With a hunk of meat like this, I had to get it special from a butcher. An expensive butcher. I believe the whole thing cost about $300. . . three years ago.

I had asked for a loin and I had asked for belly.

I was concerned that it would take too much muscle (although these butchers were big guys) to try to wrap the belly around the loin, so I suggested to them that draping the belly over the loin would be good enough. They were going to tie the whole thing up with string anyways.

I had the butcher score the skin, as we only had dull knives at home. We still do.

Getting the pork was probably the hardest thing here.

The skin!

JS:
From there, it was a matter of seasoning the outside of the log.

Salt and pepper it was! And, I believe, some garlic powder and dried herbs as well (oregano, thyme).

Turned out that was all was needed because the pork was delicious as it was.

TS:
Perhaps, technically, this wasn't a "porchetta" because we didn't get to stuff the rolled up piece of meat. But no matter, we're still calling it porchetta.

The loin.

JS:
Look at it, so white and so tender and so juicy.

TS:
Since we were making this for sandwich filling, we decided to disassemble the porchetta after roasting. We sliced the loin and chopped the belly. We also separated the skin from the meat and chopped that up.

I believe for our subsequent porchettas, we mostly went with just pork belly. Who needs all that lean loin meat anyway?

JS:
If I may, I just want to say that the gardiniera was my favourite! Piled on top of the porchetta, it was simply fabulous. I loved the tang, the crunch, and the heat.

Friday, February 28, 2014

TS:
Traditionally, pastillas de leche are made with carabao (water buffalo) milk.

I can't even recall if I've ever had carabao milk pastillas de leche, but given that I do like me a good mozzarella di bufala, I can well imagine the joy in eating carabao milk pastillas de leche.

But, we all live in an imperfect world.

TS:
Pastillas de leche are simply cooked down milk and sugar, formed into logs (pastilles, if you will).

Milk candy, in other words.

I tried my hand making them a while back, but it was laborious, all that stirring and watching over the milk, the worrying about scorching and burning the milk, the constant scraping of the bottom of the pot... I believe it was not long after that experience that I discovered (or searched for, perhaps) the existence of a shortcut way of making pastillas de leche.

TS:
For this version, all one needs is condensed milk and powdered milk. Of course, this makes sense, for what is condensed milk if not cooked down milk with sugar?

If I can't have carabao milk, then I'll definitely take condensed milk. Besides, it's a badly-kept secret how much I love condensed milk. (You cannot even imagine.)

TS:
The condensed milk and powdered milk are combined, then formed into little logs.

There are two ways this log shape can be achieved. One can pinch off a piece from the mixture and form those into logs individually. Or, one can form a long strip with the milk mixture and cut off segments, much like how one would make gnocchi.

Dulce de Leche variation
If you were feeling a wee bit industrious, you can heat up the mixture until it becomes a tad caramelized and becomes a faux dulce de leche.

Or, even easier, simply buy dulce de leche.

What a fantastic idea: dulce de leche pastillas!

TS:
The shaped logs are then coated in granulated sugar.

I don't know what I was thinking or doing, but somehow I don't think I added enough powdered milk to the condensed milk. See how loose my mixture is? Each "log" is blob-by and spreading out!

The mixture needs to be more dough-like in consistency.

TS:
My pastillas are so weird and flat!

Earl Grey Tea variation

TS:
I thought I'd be hoity-toity and have some Earl Grey tea-scented pastillas.

One could go about this in a number of ways. But, the simplest I found was simply dumping a bit of the tea into my granulated sugar. If your leaves are large, or if you have whole-leaf tea, then give them a buzz in a spice grinder first. I could've added the tea to the condensed milk-powdered milk mixture directly, but I wanted to keep that pure.

See the bowl of sugar on the bottom right? It has some tea dumped in it.

TS:
After the roll in sugar, each log is wrapped in paper. Actually, each piece is wrapped in regular paper, then the paper-wrapped log is wrapped in tissue paper.

I must confess, though, I gave up wrapping mine. What's the point of wrapping them up when they were to be devoured a few minutes afterwards anyway? We don't know what self-control is.

(There is a demo of the wrapping of which I speak in the embedded video at the end of the post.)

TS:
I don't know if I had eaten all the Earl Grey ones, but somehow these guys were the only ones left for the photo shoot. But, look up there, there's a piece there with Earl Grey tea specks.

Other variations
As you may have gathered, pastillas de leche lend themselves to countless variations.

While there are traditional variations (like citrus zest, purple yam, jackfruit, coconut, squash), why not try matcha, coffee, or any of the myriad types of teas?

2 to 3 cups powdered milk1 can (300 mL) condensed milkgranulated sugar, for rolling paper or cellophane, cut to sizeVariations:Use dulce de leche instead of condensed milk.Add any sort of texture component (pinipig, shredded coconut, crushed nuts, etc.) either in the milk mixture, or as coating.Add fruit purée to the mixture for fruit-flavored pastillas de leche.Add an appropriate cooked vegetable purée to the mixture (eg, squash/pumpkin, taro, purple yam, etc.).Add any nut butter.

Mix together condensed milk and powdered milk until the consistency of dough. Scoop out about a tablespoon's worth of "dough" and roll into a log. Roll log in granulated sugar until coated. Repeat until all the milk mixture is done.Wrap each log in paper or cellophane. A video by Pinay Cooking Lessons for your reference:

See, we're not a big hot pot family. Sure, we've gone to hot pot restaurants but the number of times we've done that in the past ten years can be counted on my fingers. It seems the suggestion of going to a hot pot restaurant is met with sighs of resignation.

None among us, except CSC, are particularly fond of hot pot.

I probably am the most amenable among the non-hot-pot-lovers, given that I would miss the hotpot experience sometime, thinking to myself that it can be quite healthy, especially when I load up on my vegetables.

TS:She lies! JS actually loves hot pot!

Look at that incendiary broth! (Little Sheep, December 2012)JS:
I especially loved the hot pot experiences that we've had when we travelled to Taiwan. That was where we first had "spicy Sichuan-style mala (麻辣) hot pot", and "pork and pickled cabbage hotpot".

TS:
I love mala 麻辣 hot pot! Well, in general, I would not crave hot pot, but if I were to go, I would only want Sichuan-style hot pot. The one we first had in Taipei in 2009 was quite eye-opening; it was spicy as spicy can be, but without sacrificing flavor. Why am I yapping about it? I should just show you. I will get on that. Anyway, I'll let JS continue.

JS:
As I was saying...

I probably am the most vulnerable one -- and one that would be the easiest to crack under this Hot Pot Fun assault.

The past couple of months, during all grocery visits, I would observe people with their hot pot fun trays at the checkout counter. I noticed how people would linger at the propane cans for the burners.

"Asian foods in every aisle" at the new Safeway. And yes, even they were getting in on the "hot pot fun" action!

JS:
When our local Safeway opened, with "Asian Foods in every aisle," we were bombarded again. Their flyers would brazenly advertise the promise of so much hot pot fun!

The very hot pot fun we apparently are not having!

Fine, hot pot we will have!

Chinese New YearThat is one very full pot.

JS:
Chinese New Year's Eve it is!

Or is it?

I suggested to CSC and Mama that we can have hot pot on CNYE. But this was a thought just thrown out there. There was no resolution and we didn't come to any consensus. Mama finally decided that she would order some food for takeout -- at least, we'd have something to eat.

TS:
Having takeout for Chinese New Year? That just seems so sad! This news galvanized me. We definitely need to put on some spectacular hot pot fun.

Brand-spankin' new induction burner.

JS:
First, we had to get the equipment sorted out.

As the hot pot lover that she is, and coming from a family of ardent hot pot lovers, CSC mentioned that they had the whole shebang: tabletop burners, the pots (even the divided ones), the ladles, and the little ladle nets.

TS and I decided that this was just too much. We'll have to make our own hot pot fun with less.

We didn't really want to fiddle around with a tabletop burner with propane cans so we decided to go with an induction cooker that was selling for a very reasonable price.

We had to make sure we had a burner first before proceeding to buy the food. TS and I got around to shopping for the other ingredients a little after 4 pm.

There was an air of frenzy at the supermarket. That buzz and excitement finally jolted me: yes, we are having hot pot!

Fun!

JS:
When I saw the whole chicken, I figured what the heck -- we might not be going all out for Chinese New Year's celebration but we had to have at least a whole chicken. And we do mean the whole chicken: head and feet included. It was boiled simply with ginger, green onions and Chinese mushrooms.

Brothleft: Large pot of chicken broth; right: Whole chicken

JS:
For our broth or soup base, we had plain ol' chicken broth. See that large pot beside the chicken dish? We couldn't really have any other soup base as no one else in the family is game for Sichuan or any other broth.

TS:
Our little hot pot fun spread. For me, I just concentrate on beef slices and mushrooms and vegetables (such as watercress and lotus root, for example). All the other stuff is extraneous. Like, what's with all the balls and dumplings?!

JS:
As we were laying out the ingredients, I mentioned to TS that it was starting to look like a party! Hey, this hot pot thing was looking, in the words of Boss#1, "realer"!

Condiments

TS:
With such a "bland" soup base, the key to making this hot pot fun is through the condiments. Here are the standard Cantonese-style condiments.

Just choose whatever you desire and mix them together to make your own sauce.

One can also add chilies or chile oil, ginger shreds, vinegar. And actually, we should've pictured at least one sauce bowl with this, a raw egg that's stirred into the sauce!

TakeoutThere was also takeout on the table! (Except the whole chicken dish and the pot on the induction burner.)

TS:
Of course, when we were shopping for ingredients, I told JS that she had to call Mama and tell her not to get takeout.
But, of course, JS did not make the call. And of course, we had a whole bunch of takeout in addition to the hot pot fun. The insanity!

This is what the entire spread ended up looking. May I remind you that there were only seven adults eating this meal.

Hot pot fun with some takeout interlopers.

SemanticsJS:
The induction cooker that we bought seemed to lack enough power and was slowing the cooking down. Mama kept suggesting that we should dump the ingredients in a big stock pot and do the cooking on our kitchen stove.

I couldn't agree -- I kept saying that if we did that, we're not really having hot pot, we are just having soup!

VerdictJS:
The hot pot party was pretty satisfying for me. I mean, I was coming off a stomach bug and had to eat more cleanly and simply, something not too heavy and greasy.

Simply dunked vegetables, some fish balls, wontons and dumplings, a few pieces of beef and pork, a bit of noodles -- laced with "my sauce," which consisted of soy sauce, sesame paste, a bit of chili oil, garlic, green onions, and cilantro. It was delicious!

It is certainly an easy way to have a party since there was no cooking involved. Minor prep, like laying out the ingredients and cutting and washing the vegetables.